A week ago was black Friday and although I had started this post on Monday, it's been busy!
After Thanksgiving Thursday, Stacy decided to venture out on Black Friday and see if some of the things she was looking for were still available with many stores starting on Thanksgiving Day again this year. From the news reports I know the trend was for quite a few stores to be going back to Friday being the day for shopping, but many of the area stores and especially towards the more populated areas in our neck of the North Idaho woods had been advertising the Thursday evening or even a few Thursday morning shopping "extravaganzas".
So Stacy went out on a cold and snowy Black Friday and a few hours later came back saying it "was crazy" out in the shopping world. Nothing like those Black Fridays back in California when she'd take one of the kids and go camp out well before dawn to be in line for the really special sales at the first opening of the store, most often Wal Mart in Victorville or Best Buy or Circuit City when they were still a viable chain store.
This is one of those years that we don't really have a 'need' for much ourselves, with some expenses coming up that may cause a pinch in our bank account, so we'd decided to hold back this season and we are even kind of stumped on gifts for various family and friends, so not much shopping!
But, backing up just a bit to the day before, Turkey Day.
Although Stacy didn't think the turkey looked particularly well. I thought it looked great, but I also can assure you it tasted fantastic. I always am amazed how well Stacy can cook meat dishes considering she's a vegetarian! Of course we no longer get the big 20 plus pound turkeys as it's just us now. But it's always all for ME!!!! And I love the leftovers that so many people apparently like to waste if it's not 'new' and look forward to them for the next several days.
After the dinner was all done, the kitchen cleaned up, the Christmas Hallmark Channel shows we'd DVR'd were seen, we decided to take on a task that needed to get done. Two Casio electronic keyboards that each have 'dead' keys. I found some instructional videos on YouTube and saw it wasn't a complicated task as long as the culprit was just dirt and dust messing up the key contacts. So, first step was take the cover off, carefully, and get the inside accessible. Above is the disassembly and part way through the cleaning stage. Turned out the entire problem was built up dust and dirt on the key contacts, helped by white grease at the factory that attracts all the dust and dirt. All those small pink dots are the contacts for all the black and white keys, a lot of them! But after about an hour in total for take apart, clean, and put back together, all the keys worked again. At first Stacy thought there was still some functions not working but I located and downloaded the owners manual for it, it is an older keyboard, both of them are. And after Stacy looked the manual over and tested out all functions the next afternoon, I was very happy that everything worked just like is supposed to. One down and one to go!
Black Friday evening, Stacy decided to make her first batch of Caramels this season. Above is that first batch, all cooled and set out to be cut up. While very good, Stacy, thought it was a little too hard and a couple of days later made a new batch, that in the photo below is in the cooking stage. The newest batch is also excellent but by tweaking the cooking just a bit this batch is very soft and chewy. So batch one is great for letting "melt in your mouth", batch two is great for having a piece of caramel candy!
And not stopping there, Stacy knows how much I prefer home made noodles over the store bought brands, so below is the finishing up stage of some whole wheat noodles that went into a turkey noodle soup that's been my lunch most of the week. VERY GOOD!
And lastly, below, a photo of the first accumulation of snow so far this season. About an inch and a half on the ground, and trees, that make it that "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" time of year now that we live in an area that actually has seasons! Take that southern California!
Overall it was a really nice holiday. Talked with the kids in their various far flung locations, And we talked to grand daughter Justine that's really moving along in the vocabulary department for only being a little over 2 years old.
And what's coming up? Well, next week, actually a week from today, I'll be having a "procedure" done that will give me the rest of December off work due to weight lifting and some mobility restrictions for the first 2 or 3 weeks of recovery. I'm planning on passing the time by getting some more posts in among other things. Still have that other keyboard to clean out, I can work on some photography, all kinds of don't move too much things I can do.
Christmas is coming, MORE TURKEY!
Til next time, Tad
After Thanksgiving Thursday, Stacy decided to venture out on Black Friday and see if some of the things she was looking for were still available with many stores starting on Thanksgiving Day again this year. From the news reports I know the trend was for quite a few stores to be going back to Friday being the day for shopping, but many of the area stores and especially towards the more populated areas in our neck of the North Idaho woods had been advertising the Thursday evening or even a few Thursday morning shopping "extravaganzas".
So Stacy went out on a cold and snowy Black Friday and a few hours later came back saying it "was crazy" out in the shopping world. Nothing like those Black Fridays back in California when she'd take one of the kids and go camp out well before dawn to be in line for the really special sales at the first opening of the store, most often Wal Mart in Victorville or Best Buy or Circuit City when they were still a viable chain store.
This is one of those years that we don't really have a 'need' for much ourselves, with some expenses coming up that may cause a pinch in our bank account, so we'd decided to hold back this season and we are even kind of stumped on gifts for various family and friends, so not much shopping!
But, backing up just a bit to the day before, Turkey Day.
After the dinner was all done, the kitchen cleaned up, the Christmas Hallmark Channel shows we'd DVR'd were seen, we decided to take on a task that needed to get done. Two Casio electronic keyboards that each have 'dead' keys. I found some instructional videos on YouTube and saw it wasn't a complicated task as long as the culprit was just dirt and dust messing up the key contacts. So, first step was take the cover off, carefully, and get the inside accessible. Above is the disassembly and part way through the cleaning stage. Turned out the entire problem was built up dust and dirt on the key contacts, helped by white grease at the factory that attracts all the dust and dirt. All those small pink dots are the contacts for all the black and white keys, a lot of them! But after about an hour in total for take apart, clean, and put back together, all the keys worked again. At first Stacy thought there was still some functions not working but I located and downloaded the owners manual for it, it is an older keyboard, both of them are. And after Stacy looked the manual over and tested out all functions the next afternoon, I was very happy that everything worked just like is supposed to. One down and one to go!
Black Friday evening, Stacy decided to make her first batch of Caramels this season. Above is that first batch, all cooled and set out to be cut up. While very good, Stacy, thought it was a little too hard and a couple of days later made a new batch, that in the photo below is in the cooking stage. The newest batch is also excellent but by tweaking the cooking just a bit this batch is very soft and chewy. So batch one is great for letting "melt in your mouth", batch two is great for having a piece of caramel candy!
And not stopping there, Stacy knows how much I prefer home made noodles over the store bought brands, so below is the finishing up stage of some whole wheat noodles that went into a turkey noodle soup that's been my lunch most of the week. VERY GOOD!
And lastly, below, a photo of the first accumulation of snow so far this season. About an inch and a half on the ground, and trees, that make it that "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" time of year now that we live in an area that actually has seasons! Take that southern California!
Overall it was a really nice holiday. Talked with the kids in their various far flung locations, And we talked to grand daughter Justine that's really moving along in the vocabulary department for only being a little over 2 years old.
And what's coming up? Well, next week, actually a week from today, I'll be having a "procedure" done that will give me the rest of December off work due to weight lifting and some mobility restrictions for the first 2 or 3 weeks of recovery. I'm planning on passing the time by getting some more posts in among other things. Still have that other keyboard to clean out, I can work on some photography, all kinds of don't move too much things I can do.
Christmas is coming, MORE TURKEY!
Til next time, Tad
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